i'm tired. not because it's almost 3am, but because it's been a busy week. i've come to realize that it's not easy maintaining friendships when everyone seems to run in different circles. i so admire the people who are really good about keeping in touch with everybody, even after people move and all of that.
after work on thursday, garrett, siobhan, kristie, me, and teri [from whom i get my paychecks] had dinner at mediterranean kitchen with our friend kirk who was in town visiting. they had gigantic portions...leftovers for days people. and it was really good.
after work on friday, melissa and i went to the kirkland performing arts center to catch Second City's 45th Anniversary Tour. they're an improv/sketch comedy group from chicago - famous alums include alan alda, eugene levy, dan castellaneta [voice of homer simpson], bill murray, mike myers, john belushi, tina fey, chris farley and a good portion of other former and current SNL players. it was pretty darn funny. we hurt from laughing so much. i learned that adding ninjas and spoofing dirty dancing makes everything funny.
today [saturday] siobhan and i had a bratwurst lunch at greenwood market. afterwards, i ran around getting last minute stuff, mainly pretty balloons, for christine's bridal shower. we ate, played fun games (like scandalous/hoochie toilet paper bride), and hung out. then, it was off to a potluck for vern, mel and toddler ben who are in town this weekend. more food and dessert and a whole lot of amusement from some of the guys who were singing disney classics and a little maroon 5 at the top of their lungs. it was great to hang out with the lees. they've been in the bay area for 10 months now and in that time, formerly baby ben has grown to a wild little person who talks and sings the alphabet. too cute...and too much energy. josh was mellow today, while owen is on the verge of walking on his own any day now. he also learned bartering/bribery. jo told us that if you're holding him, he'll kiss you and then point to somewhere he wants to go. he trades kisses for transport. so cute.
some pictures to follow...shortly.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Thursday, April 07, 2005
stupid voting public
i just read that nikko smith was voted off of american idol. the voting public must be totally lame. there's no other explanation for scott savol and anthony federov lasting this long. they're really bad and they pick lame songs. who picks "climb every mountain" to sing?!? arg! the worst part is, i bet it's stupid girls voting for the crappy contestants. double arg!
inner anger ball
my friend and co-worker ana and i were at work today and we both felt like it was a really good day. this is only important because the last week was so bad. we both had this mysterious ball of inner anger. the anger was not inspired by any particular person or event, nor was it meant to be directed to anyone specific, but we were cranky/grumpy and short with those that we encountered at work. well, maybe it's not entirely unexplainable. we've both been operating under an increased work load and our patience probably just wore too thin this last week. shiv says the moon probably brought out the craziness too and i believe it. but, i think today marked the disappearance of our inner anger ball, which is good, because it really made us want to kick people in the teeth.
also, i've learned a new word from ana. she may not have made it up, but she's the one i heard it from so she gets the credit. "geeking" as in freaking out over geeky things or in a geeky manner. so, for example, someone that gets excited about a software update would be "geeking out" about it. "dorking out" can be used in the same manner and i think i've heard people say it before. we have to make our own fun at work.
also, i've learned a new word from ana. she may not have made it up, but she's the one i heard it from so she gets the credit. "geeking" as in freaking out over geeky things or in a geeky manner. so, for example, someone that gets excited about a software update would be "geeking out" about it. "dorking out" can be used in the same manner and i think i've heard people say it before. we have to make our own fun at work.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
weekend update
friday night pam and i went to see beauty shop. it was funny, cute, and at times, predictable. and, that djimon hounsou is attractive! we went to eat at applebee's afterwards and saw lots of asians in large groups. it reminded us of post youth group hang outs. and it made us feel a little old, comparatively speaking. plus, it was only like 11pm and i was about to fall asleep at the table.
saturday night pam, shiv, and i went to the JEMS spring concert. it was nice to see people that i haven't seen in awhile, AACFers, kids from warm beach, college friends, etc. good music and good times.
on sunday we had a guest speaker from the alaskan bush come and share about his ministry to the native peoples of alaska. it was really great to hear about his experiences and it was a good reminder for us to be grateful for what we have. we've been looking for a pastor for quite some time, and every now and again, people make it seem like it's the end of the world because we're without a pastor. it was some nice perspective from pastor nathan as he shared about their need for a structurally safe church building with running water and plumbing/sewage. he was a cool guy, with a fun sarcasm, feeling our pain about not having a pastor. haha.
after church i went to owen chan's 1st birthday party! it was lots of fun!
[click on the photo for more.] after the party, i stayed to help clean-up and to play with owen and all his new presents :D happy 1st birthday owen!
saturday night pam, shiv, and i went to the JEMS spring concert. it was nice to see people that i haven't seen in awhile, AACFers, kids from warm beach, college friends, etc. good music and good times.
on sunday we had a guest speaker from the alaskan bush come and share about his ministry to the native peoples of alaska. it was really great to hear about his experiences and it was a good reminder for us to be grateful for what we have. we've been looking for a pastor for quite some time, and every now and again, people make it seem like it's the end of the world because we're without a pastor. it was some nice perspective from pastor nathan as he shared about their need for a structurally safe church building with running water and plumbing/sewage. he was a cool guy, with a fun sarcasm, feeling our pain about not having a pastor. haha.
after church i went to owen chan's 1st birthday party! it was lots of fun!
[click on the photo for more.] after the party, i stayed to help clean-up and to play with owen and all his new presents :D happy 1st birthday owen!
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
drama
so che comes home [oh, she's engaged by the way! and no, that is not the drama of which i speak] and she's like, "there are police cars in front of our house." minutes before, we heard a noise and a car alarm go off for a minute or two. so, hearing that there are police cars outside, i run to her window, which faces the street, and the two of us are peering out to see if we can figure out what's going on. we see several policemen and one of them is talking to a woman and we determine that she's been asked to prove she's sober. i'm giving kristie the play by play since she was in her room. after some time, i tell kristie that they're making her walk with her hands behind her back as another sobriety test. kristie said that it was handcuffs. and lo and behold, she was correct. the cops cuffed her and walked her to the back of the police cruiser. we think that she was in her car and possibly hit either someone's mailbox loud enough to set off a car alarm, or she hit a car parked on the street. it was too dark to tell what really happened. that was the big excitement of the evening.
and totally unrelated... yesterday, i went with shiv as she drove to bellevue to drop off garrett's wallet at a restaurant. when we walked in, i saw joana, james, and owen [whose 1st birthday party is coming up this weekend]. oh i love that owen, and jo and james too of course. :) owen was in his high chair and he started to reach for me and started to cry because i couldn't free him from the chair. if i had been able to stay at the restaurant, it would've been ok to free him, but since i couldn't, he had to stay in the chair, or else he'd never willingly go back in. it was so sad to see him cry a little. but i did feel loved since he wanted me to pick him up and play, though it might have had more to do with getting out of the chair than with me, but i like to think that he recognized me and wanted to play. i felt so bad that i couldn't play and that he had to stay in the chair. in a calm moment, shiv and i made our exit and on the way out, i waved a quick bye to the guys, whom i'd forgotten about the moment i saw owen...sorry guys.
and totally unrelated... yesterday, i went with shiv as she drove to bellevue to drop off garrett's wallet at a restaurant. when we walked in, i saw joana, james, and owen [whose 1st birthday party is coming up this weekend]. oh i love that owen, and jo and james too of course. :) owen was in his high chair and he started to reach for me and started to cry because i couldn't free him from the chair. if i had been able to stay at the restaurant, it would've been ok to free him, but since i couldn't, he had to stay in the chair, or else he'd never willingly go back in. it was so sad to see him cry a little. but i did feel loved since he wanted me to pick him up and play, though it might have had more to do with getting out of the chair than with me, but i like to think that he recognized me and wanted to play. i felt so bad that i couldn't play and that he had to stay in the chair. in a calm moment, shiv and i made our exit and on the way out, i waved a quick bye to the guys, whom i'd forgotten about the moment i saw owen...sorry guys.
Monday, March 28, 2005
He has risen.
easter seemed to sneak up quickly this year. i don't know that i gave it much thought in the days before, but i did have some time to reflect on sunday. easter marks the time of year when i first became a christian [11 years ago] and when i got baptized [7 years ago]. it's kind of amazing to look back and see how much i've changed, and stayed the same. :)
sunday service was great. we had a slide show and sharing from tim, a dentist from church who had been in stationed in fallujah. people got baptized, lots of people were in attendance - it is easter afterall.
after service, i had a church meeting for the worship team. here's a funny story that might be familiar to you if you've served in a church or fellowship before. a month and a half ago, i was asked if i would be open to participating in the worship ministry and possibly leading on occasion. my response was that i would be open to the idea. i think the worship ministry is changing some things up. so...last week, i get this e-mail about a worship leaders meeting. and i found out that i'm part of a regular rotation of worship leaders and that we'll be forming a vision and purpose for the worship ministry as well as doing a study together. my "sure, i'd be open to the idea" somehow morphed into a "sign me up and commit me to this ministry." but now, it's back to allowing me to sit in on the worship meetings and seeing how things happen and then a choice to be in or out.
after church, a few of us went to this new place on the ave, the green zone, to have tea and egg balls. i had never had an egg ball before - they're like belgian waffles, except it's egg shaped, rather than waffled, and the batter tastes better. the man behind the counter had me point out what i wanted on a menu that had chinese subtitles. i meant to point at a honey milk tea, but i think my finger drifted upwards toward lemon tea, because that's what i got. it was made with real lemons and tasted like lemonade green tea. it was really good and plus, i didn't have the heart to communicate that it was something else i wanted and it just didn't matter that much. and it turned out that everybody else ordered the same drink because it was that good.
he wrote my total on a small slip of paper and slid it across the counter to me. this confirmed my suspicion that he didn't speak english, or at least, not very fluently. it then made me want to figure out how we could make things easier. i suggested to jeanette that she try mandarin, but we saw that mandarin wasn't really working and his accent seemed to have some cantonese to it. so when joyce and wing-onn got there, i asked joyce to try cantonese, which worked. the man was definitely more at ease and in a very short time, we learned that he pretty much only speaks cantonese, he's from vancouver, ca and the shop belongs to his son and he was just filling in for the day to give his son a day off, and the cute posters advertising the egg balls were designed by his son's friend. joyce really wanted one and he said he would ask his son to get one for her for the next time she came by. i just thought it was so great of him to work for his son despite the fact that it might have been tough communicating with customers. it really made my day.
for the evening, i went to my first easter dinner. chris and jason fong's parents invited people to join their family for dinner and it was a lot of fun. there were appetizers and lots and lots of food and dessert, including jello in the shape of eggs. after dinner we played apples to apples and uno. it was just a really great day, for so many reasons.
He has risen indeed.
sunday service was great. we had a slide show and sharing from tim, a dentist from church who had been in stationed in fallujah. people got baptized, lots of people were in attendance - it is easter afterall.
after service, i had a church meeting for the worship team. here's a funny story that might be familiar to you if you've served in a church or fellowship before. a month and a half ago, i was asked if i would be open to participating in the worship ministry and possibly leading on occasion. my response was that i would be open to the idea. i think the worship ministry is changing some things up. so...last week, i get this e-mail about a worship leaders meeting. and i found out that i'm part of a regular rotation of worship leaders and that we'll be forming a vision and purpose for the worship ministry as well as doing a study together. my "sure, i'd be open to the idea" somehow morphed into a "sign me up and commit me to this ministry." but now, it's back to allowing me to sit in on the worship meetings and seeing how things happen and then a choice to be in or out.
after church, a few of us went to this new place on the ave, the green zone, to have tea and egg balls. i had never had an egg ball before - they're like belgian waffles, except it's egg shaped, rather than waffled, and the batter tastes better. the man behind the counter had me point out what i wanted on a menu that had chinese subtitles. i meant to point at a honey milk tea, but i think my finger drifted upwards toward lemon tea, because that's what i got. it was made with real lemons and tasted like lemonade green tea. it was really good and plus, i didn't have the heart to communicate that it was something else i wanted and it just didn't matter that much. and it turned out that everybody else ordered the same drink because it was that good.
he wrote my total on a small slip of paper and slid it across the counter to me. this confirmed my suspicion that he didn't speak english, or at least, not very fluently. it then made me want to figure out how we could make things easier. i suggested to jeanette that she try mandarin, but we saw that mandarin wasn't really working and his accent seemed to have some cantonese to it. so when joyce and wing-onn got there, i asked joyce to try cantonese, which worked. the man was definitely more at ease and in a very short time, we learned that he pretty much only speaks cantonese, he's from vancouver, ca and the shop belongs to his son and he was just filling in for the day to give his son a day off, and the cute posters advertising the egg balls were designed by his son's friend. joyce really wanted one and he said he would ask his son to get one for her for the next time she came by. i just thought it was so great of him to work for his son despite the fact that it might have been tough communicating with customers. it really made my day.
for the evening, i went to my first easter dinner. chris and jason fong's parents invited people to join their family for dinner and it was a lot of fun. there were appetizers and lots and lots of food and dessert, including jello in the shape of eggs. after dinner we played apples to apples and uno. it was just a really great day, for so many reasons.
He has risen indeed.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
TV DVD
i got hooked on re-watching dawson's creek on dvd. siobhan and kristie both have a number of seasons on DVD and i came home to shiv watching season 1. after she left, i kept watching and skipped over to season 3, and the next thing i know, it's close to 3am. 3AM people!!! too crazy. and...i just bought season 1 of the pretender. i loved that show.
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